Tag Archives: 1986

I watched this game alone in the den, and it was a good one. Steve Dils started the game as QB, but after going down 13-0, the Rams’ Jim Everett made his debut. The Rams were ahead 28-16 in the 4th quarter and then it was 28-23. I was sure that they had it won, but the Patriots won it on a hail mary pass to Irving Fryar with no time left. Being a kid, I was absolutely stunned as I had never seen a game won on a hail mary before. I went to bed extremely depressed, and I think my mom asked me what was wrong. Yep, in 1986 the rams losing mattered to me, and strangely it still does. I’ve relived this ending in my mind a thousand times and have had many unfulfilled fantasies over the years about it turning out differently.

This was a brutal loss for me. I remember I was watching this game right up until it was about to go into overtime. Then my parents called me to dinner and as soon as I was finished I ran down to the basement and turned on the TV to see that the dolphins just won it in overtime. Another memory I have of this game is that there was a ram touchdown that they got after instant replay, a 25 yard pass to Kevin House. There was no time limit for replay back then, and it took like 5 or 10 minutes before they finished reviewing it and gave him the touchdown and the Anaheim crowd went crazy.﻿ Had the Rams won this game, they would have clinched the division. Instead, after a dominating season they ended up only getting in the playoffs as a wildcard after losing the final game of the regular season and the division to the 49ers.